


Marble Courtship

by Kaillingme (Setty94)



Category: EXO (Band), K-pop, SuperM (Korea Band)
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Fae & Fairies, Jongin's Birthday Week 2021, M/M, Sculpture, Seelie Court, Unseelie Court
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:02:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29862669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setty94/pseuds/Kaillingme
Summary: Jongin keeps finding small sculptures in the back of his parents' art shop. He soon discovers there's a bigger secret behind them.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Kim Jongin | Kai
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10
Collections: Challenge #14 — We Artist Baby!





	Marble Courtship

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I'd like to thank the mods for letting me participate! I'm super excited about this round~

When Jongin was a child, he fell in love with a sculpture. It was a small dog made of marble that had delicate gray veins spidering all across it. He would spend hours tracing over the veins until the tips of his fingers were raw and his mother called him for dinner. It was as if time slowed the moment he came into contact with the smooth surface.

His parents never asked him what he spent his time doing in the back room of their art shop. If they had any idea, they most likely didn’t mind as Jongin was well behaved. So long as he came to the table to eat when he was called, they seemed content with him spending all day back there, tracing over the paths his fingers surely knew by heart.

Truth be told, Jongin wasn’t even sure they could see the sculpture, because when he tried to show his sisters, they gave him strange looks and told him to stop playing pranks. It should’ve worried Jongin in that moment that perhaps he was imagining things, but the sculpture always felt so real. Besides, his sisters probably weren’t looking hard enough, or maybe the sculpture didn’t  _ want _ to be seen. Either way, Jongin was content to keep this his little secret.

When Jongin reached adolescence, another sculpture appeared in the back room. This time, instead of a small dog, it was of a ballet dancer, frozen in a beautiful arabesque. He lifted it to his face, scrutinizing the tiny details and wondering to himself, how someone could carve individual hair strands so perfectly on such a small scale. 

He wanted to show his parents but after what happened when he tried to move the dog sculpture to his room, he was much too afraid to take the sculpture from this back room. He set it back and peered around, staring into the darkness, and said “Thank you.”

He’d just started ballet classes about a week ago, so he found its appearance coincidental, but things had always been weird in the back of his parents’ art shop. So when more and more tiny sculptures began showing up in various poses that he’d been learning, Jongin started to wonder if someone was creating them.

It wasn’t until years later, when he returned home from a long and exhaustive tour with his dance school, that Jongin caught sight of who may have been the creator of the sculptures he’d been finding his whole life.

He’d walked into the back of the art room, the door scraping away a layer of dust from obvious misuse, and stood in the center, letting the light behind him filter in, dimly giving the boxes and supplies some semblance of life.

A small movement towards the furthest corner in the back, made Jongin hold his breath. He counted the seconds, waiting for another movement before finally croaking out a hushed, “Hello?”

There was no answer.

Jongin waited, breath bated and eyes straining into the dimness. “It’s okay, I won’t hurt you. I just want to see you.”

He felt silly saying these words aloud, knowing full well that no one was going to answer him back. He started to back away, hand reaching back for the door knob when a sound stopped him. He whipped towards the source and felt his arm drop to his side.

Before him stood a man, clearly inhuman, dressed in strange leafy clothing. His hair was inky black, stark against pale skin that almost seemed to shimmer. He stood there, hidden in the shadows, with a curious expression on his face.

Jongin could not move. He stared at the man, transfixed. “Did you make these,” Jongin asked, eye glancing at the collection of small sculptures adorning the boxes. 

The man nodded.

Jongin swallowed. He tentatively stepped closer to the man, heart ramming in his chest. Now closer, he could see even more details. How his hair seemed to move as though there was a constant gentle breeze. How his lashes seemed to have dew drops upon them. How his skin looked as though it was made of the same marble that he’d seen all those years ago.

“Can I touch you?” Jongin asked. He wanted to know if he felt like the sculptures. If he felt as cold as he looked. 

The man nodded again.

Gingerly, Jongin poked his cheek, surprised that it was warm to the touch. The man shuddered, leaning into his hand, clearly having not had contact in so long.

“Oh my prince...” the man said at last. 

His voice was like a song, one that made his scalp tingle and gave Jongin chills down to his toes. It spoke to his core, drawing him in closer and closer until Jongin wasn’t so sure if he was even real. 

“How long have you been living here?” Jongin asked.

“I’m merely visiting.”

“How old are you?”

“As old as you are.”

“You’re real, right?”

“Only as real as you are.”

Jongin shook his head, feeling a headache coming on and asked himself why he hadn’t called the police. There was a strange man in the back of his parents' art shop. 

“Who are you?” Jongin asked, finally.

“Baekhyun, Prince of the Unseelie Court. And you are Jongin, Prince of the Seelie Court and my betrothed,” Baekhyun explained. “I’ve come to take you back.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for getting this far! This was an idea I had floating around in my head for months but didn't know how to put into words. It's not perfect, but I like how it _sparks_ a much longer story in my mind.


End file.
